Worker in a textile hub could not get a bank account opened.
Over 1 crore Jan Dhan accounts have been opened since the notes ban came into effect on November 9. The deposits since have also doubled to over 87,000 crores and the tax department is scrutinising the data. Yet, many workers without bank accounts could not be paid.
The number of Jan Dhan accounts has gone up to 26.51 crore as of January 4. Of these, 16.11 crore are in rural areas. Finance Ministry data shows that over 15 crore Jan Dhan accounts are linked to Aadhar numbers and nearly 20 crore accounts have Rupay cards.
But despite an impressive growth in the number of new accounts, workers and their employees point out the huddles.
Eizaz Ansari, a 46-year-old weaver working in the textile hub of Bhiwandi in Maharashtra could not get a bank account opened since his Aadhar card had a Bihar address. But his employer made helped him out.
"My boss helped me in opening my account so I get paid by cheque but the people who don't have an account are facing a lot of issues," said Mr Ansari, who is now part of an impressive statistics on new bank accounts.
Kundan Pawar, who owns a powerloom unit in Bhiwandi, says getting proof of local address is a big challenge.
"In Bhiwandi people from all over come to work. But in all their documents, the address is of their native states. That's one of the reasons why workers are not being able to open new accounts," Mr Pawar said, urging that banks should be lenient to open accounts with address proofs of other states.
"Let the banks not issue then cheque books but at least they can deposit and withdraw cash from their accounts," the 44-year-old entrepreneur added.
It's an argument that has also found favour with the government. The Labour Ministry has already urged banks to facilitate account opening for workers, adding that it will monitor if the wages deposited in these accounts are per norms fixed by the ministry.